Spotsylvania officials discuss ESSER funds for COVID relief.
Virginia school districts had until Friday to spend nearly $215 million of federal relief funding related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On March 27, 2020, the U.S. Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) ACT which provided $30.75 billion to the Education Stabilized Fund. The money was split into three funds concerning higher education, the governor’s emergency education relief, and K-12 education.
Of that $30.75 billion, the Elementary and Secondary Emergency Education (ESSER) Fund received $13.5 billion. The emergency relief funds were reserved to address the impact of COVID-19 on schools across the country.
School divisions had until Friday to spend that money, known as ESSER I, on a variety of pandemic-related expenses, including staff pay, technology to enable virtual learning, and repairs or upgrades to HVAC systems to make school buildings safer upon students’ return, and must submit their ESSER expenses to the state for reimbursement by November.
People are also reading…
To learn more about the state of school emergency relief fund plans, over the summer the Richmond Times-Dispatch sent public records requests to each of the state’s 132 public school systems.
School systems in the Richmond area were allocated $29.6 million of ESSER I funding, according to records from the Virginia Department of Education. More than 75% of that money went to Richmond Public Schools ($13.7 million) and Henrico County Public Schools ($9.4 million). Chesterfield County Public Schools, the largest division in the area by enrollment, received $5.6 million, and Hanover County Public Schools received just over $900,000.
Records shared with the Times-Dispatch show that RPS’s ESSER spending included $5.7 million in devices to support virtual learning, $1.7 million in sanitation services for school buildings and $1.6 million to provide mental health services for students and staff, while Henrico County’s largest expenditure was more than $3 million to pay classroom monitors and substitute teachers.
Most of the school districts that responded to the Times-Dispatch’s request confirmed that they had spent most or all of their ESSER I allocations by the middle of July. But in some districts, significant amounts of money were not spent until the program’s final months.
Some of that is merely a result of timing. A spokesperson for Newport News Public Schools, which had yet to spend nearly $200,000 when the district responded to the Times-Dispatch’s records request, confirmed Thursday that in July, the district was still waiting on an invoice from a cybersecurity software provider that has since been received and paid.
But in other cases, it is unclear whether the districts have spent all of the money allocated to them. Representatives for public school systems in Amherst and Madison counties and the cities of Chesapeake and Danville — all of which had not yet obligated at least $30,000 of ESSER I funds as of July — did not respond to follow-ups from The Times-Dispatch to confirm whether they had spent the remaining money.
Charles Pyle, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Education, told The Times-Dispatch via email that money allotted to school divisions that had not been requested for reimbursement by the November deadline would revert back to the U.S. Treasury.
ESSER I is not the only allotment of federal relief money designed to help school systems get through the pandemic. ESSER II, an additional $54.3 billion in federal funding for local schools, was awarded as part of the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, signed into law in December 2020.
And a third round of funding, ESSER III, was designated for schools in March 2021 after the American Rescue Plan was signed into law. The $1.9 trillion relief package included $122 billion in new relief funds for elementary and secondary schools.
Funds from ESSER II and ESSER III are required to be spent by September 2023 and September 2024, respectively.
Roberto Rodriguez, assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Education’s office of planning, evaluation and policy development, said at an education seminar in July that “our administration is going to stay solidly focused on making sure these dollars are put to use for recovery and meeting the needs associated with the pandemic.”
However, Rodriguez said, there are longer-term considerations to keep in mind, and solutions will not appear overnight.
“So that’s an opportunity to restart,” Rodriguez said. “How can we utilize these dollars in ways that provide new and more creative solutions to meeting some of the more entrenched challenges we’ve seen in our system?”
How federal COVID-19 educational aid was awarded to every state
How federal COVID-19 educational aid was awarded to every state
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government allocated $274.2 billion to help schools and students recover from the mass disruption in educational operations and development forced by remote learning models and other pandemic-related precautionary measures and methods. Approximately $189.5 billion of these funds were made available in three waves via the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund. A further $84.7 billion was released via a series of funds attached to further COVID-19 relief action, namely the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, the American Rescue Plan, and the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act.
Citing data from the Department of Education, HeyTutor broke down what every state received from educational relief funds passed through the CARES and CRRSA Acts and the American Rescue Plan. Each of these funds have unique markers and requirements for distribution, but all exist for the same purpose: to help schools, their staff, and their students regain the educational ground lost during the pandemic.
Keep reading to learn how COVID-19 educational aid was allocated across the nation.
The present concern now is whether the need will outlast the funds
Schools are required to spend all of their designated funding allotments by September 2024, but students may still require help after that.
A July 2022 study by educational nonprofit group NWEA found that elementary school students might not catch up with their studies for at least three years; as for middle-school students, that could well stretch to five years. Those most harmed by the pandemic—among them Hispanic, Black, and Native American students, and students from low-income homes—are likely to need the most time to get back on track. Many entered kindergarten already behind some of their classmates because of existing disparities; the pandemic only worsened those differences.
Students who spent the least time in remote learning fared the best, according to the study. High-poverty schools spent more time learning remotely than those in low-poverty districts; consequently, low-poverty schools have less of a burden in regaining lost ground. But all schools, to some degree, are suffering the radiative effects of a nationwide disruption that will take years to correct—more years perhaps than school systems will be able to support that recovery.
Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund
Funds distributed via ESSER came from three sources: the CARES Act in March 2020, which allocated $13.2 billion; the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act later that December, which provided a further $54.3 billion; and the American Rescue Plan, which allocated $122 billion. All funds were made available to schools upended by the pandemic, forced to close, and limited to online learning. Each wave of funds enabled schools to reopen safely—by buying personal protection equipment or improving ventilation systems, for example—and helped students recover from disruptions to their education through summer school programming, tutoring, and other supplementary programs.
Federal guidelines allow for virtual tutoring, some of which use live video or artificial intelligence. Critics say online tutoring remains untested compared to in-person sessions with a tutor, but the new tutoring services counter that they can offer 1-to-1 attention anywhere. A March 2021 report from the Association of School Business Officials International that looked at how schools had begun to use funding from ESSER I and II distributions found that a large portion was spent on PPE, teacher wages, cleaning supplies, and technology and learning management systems for remote learning.
According to a federal notice, funds provided by the American Rescue Plan in March 2021 were allowed to be used against pre-award costs incurred, such as the hiring of counseling, nursing, or other support staff; the establishment of learning enrichment programs; the installation of HVAC systems; and ensuring the payment of faculty salaries and benefits.
Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund
Educational institutions received another allotment of coronavirus pandemic assistance through the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund, whereby Congress set aside $3 billion of the $30.75 billion allotted to the Education Stabilization Fund via the CARES Act. A further $1.3 billion was provided to the GEER Fund grant by the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations in December 2020. This money was distributed based on each state’s population of individuals ages 5 to 24, and the relative number of students as designated under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
In Maryland, Gov. Larry Hogan directed $10 million to community colleges for workforce development courses and continuing professional education for government or industry certification or licensure. In Pennsylvania, $28 million went to postsecondary institutions and providers of adult basic education to resume operations safely.
Emergency Assistance to Non-Public Schools
The Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021, and then the American Rescue Plan, provided $2.75 billion for the Emergency Assistance to Non-Public Schools, enabling governors across the country to offer assistance to nonpublic schools. The American Rescue Plan, however, specified that these schools enroll a significant percentage of low-income students and that they must be “most impacted by the qualifying emergency.”
To that end, New Jersey’s Department of Education suggested possible uses for the money including “redeveloping instructional plans for remote or hybrid learning or to address learning loss” and leasing space to maintain social distancing. In Washington D.C., the Office of the State Superintendent of Education set up a website to aid nonpublic schools in understanding the parameters to qualify for funds and enabling easy application. The office noted that the funds are meant to help nonpublic schools reopen safely, measure and address significant learning loss, and otherwise mitigate the effects of COVID-19.
Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund
The American Rescue Plan, signed in March 2021, provided almost $40 billion to public and private nonprofit colleges and universities. The grants went to schools with the greatest need, among them community colleges and rural schools. The focus was on diverse student populations and low-income students, determined by the eligibility for Pell Grants. Colleges whose enrollment declined also were eligible for money, as were those with endowments of less than $1 million.
Almost 90% of one round of funding (dispersed in July 2022) went to historically Black colleges and universities, minority-serving institutions, community colleges, rural institutions, and institutions serving large populations of low-income students. The pandemic left some smaller schools scrambling to stay open, forcing them to lay off faculty and curtail majors. Some of the funds were to be spent on students’ basic needs, including food, housing, and child care.
Further Higher Education Emergency Relief funds were made available through the CARES and CRRSA Acts.
This story originally appeared on HeyTutor and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.
